Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Beth on March 3, 2012 at 9:22am

I know you are not primarily looking for advice, but I'm going to go ahead and give some anyway, because it sounds like she is primarily food-guarding from him and YOU CAN HANDLE THIS!  :-)

1) From now on, everyone eats in crates, period.  No exceptions.  If crates are not possible, then baby gates or separate rooms with doors closed.  Lest you think this is extreme, my breeder said she always feeds all of hers in crates, because Corgis really REALLY like their food.  

2) No people food, for anyone.  When people are eating, Carly gets crated.  

3) The humans eat in one room only, and any dropped food is immediately picked up and the floor wiped with some kind of cleaning wipes. 

4) When you are handing out treats, if either dog looks at anything but your face, the treats go away.  No trying to get anyone else's.

5) Finally, I'd teach both the dogs to "sit" "stay" and "back up" and make sure they will follow the commands from a distance.  Teaching that "sit" means "sit where you are, don't come up to me first" takes a little while and you start it with the dog just three feet from you and move up from there.   If "sit" is too hard to teach that way (it IS hard), most dogs grasp the "wait" or "stay" from a distance.   I'd also work really hard on "leave it."   Getting better voice control will allow you to get Carly to refocus if you spot her getting ready to launch from afar.   As a short-term fix, get her to look at you whenever you say her name, in increasingly distracting situations.  Learn to watch for the prelude to the attack; with most dogs it's a hard stare and a stiffening of the back (it's easier with tailed dogs because their tail gets high over their back).  

A behaviorist is a great idea if you can find one.   In the meantime, tighten up the house rules, make sure everyone is on board, and don't put the dogs in situations where there are high-value items around (food, edible chews, etc) and they are loose together.  

If your German Shepherd is attaching your Pug, then usually one needs to be rehomed immediately because the smaller dog's life is in danger.  With Frankie being the bigger dog here, you really do have some time to work it out.  Wait til you are calm, talk to your husband and explain it can be improved but it takes time and effort to do so.  

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on March 3, 2012 at 9:31am

Good info from Beth:)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Priscilla, CARLY, and Frankie on March 3, 2012 at 10:00am

Thankyou Beth  for taking the time to write all this out, its very good advise...I sent the e-mail to my hubby  ..Your right we must all be on board, proactive.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Priscilla, CARLY, and Frankie on March 3, 2012 at 10:38am

Beth when food is not involved , for instance when my son brings his corgi over "Cowboy", she wont leave him alone if he gets near me or just walks by me..so we had to put her in the crate .. This is not resource guarding is it?

Another problem she has is when my husband and i are talking, or  if he raises his voice loudly at the tv, as he does haha, not a quite man... she starts trembling and hides beside me.  No hes never beat her and she isnt afraid of him..

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Beth on March 3, 2012 at 10:51am

She is guarding you from Cowboy.   I would continue to crate her in that circumstance.  It's a lot to ask of a dog to have an outside dog come in and be in the home.  Yes, some dogs are fine with it but a lot of dogs would not tolerate that situation.

As far as how she reacts to your husband.... it sounds like that stresses her.  A lot of dogs don't like people yelling and don't seem to be able to quite tell the difference between yelling in anger and yelling out of enthusiasm.   Jack (a dog who tolerates most things) starts barking and jumping at us if we raise our voices at all.   

That's harder to manage because it's just not reasonable to expect people to never raise their voices.  If she were not also a food-guarder you could have your husband toss treats when he yells, but in her case that could be counter-productive.   You might try just giving a soothing, "It's ok" and redirect her to some other activity she finds enjoyable.  

From all your descriptions over time, she certainly does not have the easiest temperament!  You know, I know you adore her but it's not a bad thing to rehome dogs and if it comes to that please don't feel you have failed her.  However, you may find that if you manage the food situation carefully, over time she relaxes because she doesn't have that constant stressor keeping her on edge.   And learn to modify your expectations; of all the dogs I had growing up, for instance (and we always had multiple dogs) I can think of only one who would have been ok having an outside dog come into the home and hang out with the family.  And he was a lab.   The others would have most likely either started a fight or trembled and hid.  

My current two are ok with a dog in the house but we specifically requested dogs who were very dog-tolerant from the breeder, due to our proximity to a busy park.  

Remember, when you read stories here about people's dogs, most of the regular posters are fairly extreme dog enthusiasts who do way more with their dogs than the average pet owner.  I would not take my dogs into another dogs home and expect the resident dog to be happy if my dogs went near toys, furniture, or the other dog's people.   So don't judge Carly too harshly for that.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Donna and Lilly on March 3, 2012 at 1:12pm

I used to have an English Mastiff, and my daughter had a corgi.  Ein got along great with Dexter.  Then Dexter had to cross the Rainbow Bridge.  We didnt think much about it, we grieved and life goes on.  My folks came down to visit with their 4 dogs.  Ein attacked their Cav King Charles Spaniel.  It happened several times.  We couldnt figure out what was triggering things.  My folks left, with their dogs, and we thought we were going to go back to normal.  A couple of days later, Ein suddenly attacked my Min Pin.  Again we couldnt figure out the trigger.  After a couple of months we thought we were going to have to get rid of Ein.  I made a fateful call to a trainer here, who had less than favorable things to say about dog owners in the area, and I then decided, that Eff it, we were gonna fix him ourselves.  I looked thru books, and we then went thru Pack Rehabilitation.  Ein did nothing unless we said so.  Didnt eat, go into his crate, go outside, nothing. We also realized he needed something to focus on.  He either needed a long walk or a couple of sessions of fetch a day. Thank God for the Chuck it Stick!  And thank god it worked.  It wasnt until I was watching an episode of the Dog Whisperer about 2 German Shephards that we realized that Dex had been Pack leader, and once he passed, Ein for some reason took it on himself to help us with the pack situation. Any sign of anxiety or a submissive gesture would trigger him. But now he is much better,  My folks and their dogs have been down several times, and we even brought Lilly into the home.  She was 6 weeks old when she came home, and aside from 2 growls at the very beginning, it has gone fine. She will be 2 in may.

 I know it is very hard when you have an agressive dog.  We didnt know where to turn, or why it was happening.  We were very lucky.  Hang in there...it will get better! 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Beth on March 3, 2012 at 4:30pm

Priscilla, I wanted to point out something else that is sometimes easy to miss.   It's easy to put all the blame on the obvious offender, but is it possible that Frankie hasn't learned to respect Carly's personal space?   Sometimes the sweet ones can instigate and it's invisible to us people.  My Madison is sweet and submissive, but gosh she can be a bit clueless about other animals' "please leave me alone" postures.  She routinely crowds into Jack despite his repeated protests over years that he hates being crowded.   She gets swatted by the cat on a daily basis because she can't stop herself from staring at the cat.  Maddie stares and Boo's eyes get narrower and narrower, and Maddie stares some more and maybe says "Harf?" and Boo's hair starts to stand up, and STILL Maddie doesn't see it coming til it's too late and she's been cuffed about the ears.  In the two years we've had Boo, Jack has been swatted maybe twice and Maddie's been swatted 500 times, at least.   

That is not to excuse Carly's behavior; a more tolerant dog would just say "Jesus, would you leave me alone!" and maybe growl or bark and leave.   But watch more carefully and see if Frankie is making  a pest of himself.  It can be subtle.   

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Priscilla, CARLY, and Frankie on March 3, 2012 at 5:24pm

oh ya...Beth im aware that frankie could get in her so called "bubble" and be the culprit.. im watching him and im sure ive neglected to stop it every time ..  Good point.

love the story about your cat...LOL

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jill M on March 3, 2012 at 4:48pm

http://users.amerion.com/emrys/ProblematicPems.pdf

interesting read that was given to me when I rescued a dog aggressive corgi at the end of last year --take form it what you will

this was also given to me:

Do you know about the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT)? That's who I contacted when I was looking for a trainer that 'specializes' in aggression.This is the link below. APDT doesn't endorse particular trainers, it is an association of professionals who are most likely certified and have gone thru rigorous science/psychology based training.

http://www.apdt.com/petowners/ts/default.aspx

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Priscilla, CARLY, and Frankie on March 3, 2012 at 5:23pm

very interesting ill read as soon as i get the chance , thanks!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Snickmom on March 3, 2012 at 7:54pm

I can recommend a behaviorist who is reasonably priced. We had an incident where our very sweet spaniel apparently bit my son's friend. I immediately called our vet who is an old college friend and he recommended us to Dr. Tripp who he went to school with. Dr. Tripp has a website and a team of people. The website is www.animalbehavior.net  You fill out a questionare and make an appointment to speak to Dr, Tripp on the phone. My husband and I got on two phones so we could both hear and answer questions. this process costs $120 and gives you one year access to their library of helpful articles. The Dr. gave us lots of explanations and made a recommendation that we use a pet behavior coach for one month for $45/ mo. They then sent us 10 lessons, one every 2 or 3 days and we had unlimited access to the coach via email and phone to ask questions about the lessons and any problems. We could also ask for help in finding articles in the library about problems for the other dogs. The whole thing, for us, was the Nothing in Life is Free (NILIF) program, just as Beth was explaining with letting the dogs know who is the leader. Although we set everything up because of Jack, Snickers is the one who really benefited from us learning this method, and there were a lot of other annoying habits both dogs had that we learned to deal with becuase of this help. If someone had a more sever problem, I understand they have people who can come to your home to observe. Our training coach was on the other side of the country from us, but since everything was by email and phone, it didn't matter much.  There is lots of info on the internet about NILIF if you want to try it on your own. If we had known to train dogs this way to start with, life would have been much easier!!!

This is something you can solve!

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page